


No man can sleep with a goddess and remain unscathed

by 5972OltonHall



Series: What's it with babies? [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: F/M, Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 13:26:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17919671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5972OltonHall/pseuds/5972OltonHall
Summary: A short story about a young couple (Beverley Brook & Peter Grant) rising for breakfast, the context sets it immediately after the ending of Lies Sleeping.Therefore a spoiler alert issued for Lies Sleeping.There is a general reference to another magical community's existence (That of Harry Potter et al) but no specific HP characters are involved.The trigger was two consecutive Writer’s Group prompts today: the first, the title above, the second the phrase “He studied her face in the mirror” and the words kiosk, candyfloss, envy and Nightingale. The title prompt is a quote from a work by Malcolm R Campbell:–see https://malcolmsroundtable.com/2019/02/20/a-broken-man-lives-on-my-street/Usual disclaimer. Anything borrowed, whether from canon or elsewhere, remains the copyright of the originator(s)/publisher(s), the rest is my copyright. (See also Notes)





	No man can sleep with a goddess and remain unscathed

In both his role as Detective Chief Inspector, and as his tutor, Thomas Nightingale was both worried about, and envious of, Peter. Surely no man can sleep with a goddess and remain unscathed, and one thing was certain, Peter had definitely been doing more than just sleeping with Beverley Brook. Beverley may be the goddess of a small river in West London but that had not stopped her becoming pregnant. Whether the pregnancy was planned or accidental Nightingale had no idea, although knowing the pair he expected it was hardly accidental. However, he knew that by becoming a father, his apprentice DC Peter Grant (the first Newtonian wizard trainee to be taken on since the end of WWII) was pushing the limits of the agreements to breaking strain. Who knew what would happen should the resultant baby turn out to be magical.

The Folly, the last bastion of British Newtonian Wizardry, had a network of informal agreements with the magical population, or at least that part of the magical population that it officially knew about! There was, of course, a whole additional worldwide magical community which was managing, on the whole, to keep itself isolated and self policed. When interactions with this layer of magical society did occur, retained memories of the event were always one sided. As both head of The Folly, and Peter’s superior officer in the Metropolitan Police, Thomas had a feeling that should the young couple’s attitude to this pregnancy push things too far with regard to riverine diplomacy he would be garnering some of the flack. His nemesis, fellow DCI Alexander Seawoll, in this instance could hardly use his stock description of “ _weird bollocks_ ” in regard to Peter’s action in getting his girlfriend pregnant. Although rarely showing it - that just wasn’t his way - Seawoll actually quite liked Peter, and admired his strength in taking on the various weird occurrences he encountered. However, he had to keep up appearances and was already muttering that Peter was a damned idiot, what with the problems losing him in due course for paternity leave would cause.

Beverley’s own sisters had mixed emotions about it. Some of them liked Peter, Walbrook probably even owed him her life, but then there was the Lady Ty. Lady Cecilia Tyburn Thames, goddess of the river of the same name, was protective of her younger sister, had warned her that getting involved was not going to be a candyfloss* romance out of a Mills & Boon paperback. Her opening gambit of  _"Beverley. You don’t just meet a wizard at a coffee kiosk, share meaningful looks, and everything is sweetness and light until death do us part. Didn't you realise that actions have consequences?"_ had been just been the launch point for a long tirade when she'd learnt of her younger sister's pregnancy. An emotional tirade that Beverley deflected just as easily as water off a duck's back.

Ok, so they hadn’t actually met at a coffee kiosk, but Ty had constantly warned the pair of them to be careful. Ty was not one to be trifled with - Beverley and Peter may have deliberately ignored her observations, but as she saw it there would be consequences. Careful in Ty’s eyes was not getting serious with a mortal, especially not a mortal wizard, and certainly not getting pregnant. She’d done it herself, pregnancy that is not the marrying a wizard bit, but not before the serious step of getting married, She was already realising she’d outlive her husband and children, but no Beverley hadn’t listened, or if she had she’d chosen to ignore Ty’s advice. Fortunately for most residents of the Thames tideway zone Mama Thames had a soft spot for Peter. She saw consequences, but only good ones; in the main river there was no tidal surge born of an outraged goddess.

As for what Peter was doing at that precise moment of Nightingale’s angst, the answer was simple. After showering he’d walked back to the bedroom, and was looking at his girlfriend. She was sitting at the dressing table brushing her hair. He studied her face in the mirror, she had that bloom of life that only the newly pregnant ever show; as every girl’s face differs it’s almost impossible to describe, but a change instantly recognisable if you know the girl. He walked towards her, caressing her shoulder, seeing the radiance in her face reflected back to the both of them. He saw his own face alongside hers, together, would it be forever?

Looking at Beverley he wondered how he could ever have fancied his former colleague, now turned rogue, Lesley May; but he had. Life had a cruel twist even in the best moments. He continued with his caresses, she continued her hair-brushing, nothing said, nothing needing to be said, just a quiet moment of togetherness, with smiles exchanged via the mirror.

Eventually they broke apart. Peter reluctantly dressing for work, before heading downstairs to make a tea for her and a coffee for himself. He prepared a tray with cup, saucer and milk, putting it temporarily onto the worktop; Capital Radio on quietly, toast browning in the toaster, butter softening against the hob, the usual tranquillity of a normal suburban morning. No one viewing the scene would guess this was the breakfast table of a goddess and a wizard. Sadly, the peace was not to last. The trilling of a mobile phone interrupted the breakfast preparation. It was Peter’s work intruding, he answered to hear Guleed’s voice, an incident at Aldwych was urgently needing Peter’s specialist assessment, Beverley would just have to brew her own tea this morning.

 

* For the benefit of American readers the UK's candyfloss is your cotton candy.

**Author's Note:**

> A thank you to my wife for proof reading and suggesting some grammatical changes/corrections and to Judi Moore and the Off the Cuff writer's group for the prompts.
> 
> COPYRIGHT STATEMENT - All references to characters, scenarios and locations from Rivers of London (Ben Aaronovitch and Harry Potter (J K Rowling) are recognised as the intellectual property of the two authors and their subsequent publishers. The quote from Malcolm R Campbell also fully acknowledged on the same basis. No commercial benefits are being accrued or claimed. However, all originally created material within this work remains mine. (This note revised & updated 25 March 2019)


End file.
